This invention relates generally to medical parameter monitoring and more particularly to monitoring multiple medical parameters of one or more subjects from a remote location. One preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a patient monitor and transceiver unit in one or more parts, one unit for each of a plurality of patients; a remote display/control device at a central monitoring system; and a communications system between the patient units and the remote display/control device.
Systems presently available for remote monitoring commonly employ either a hardwired connection between the patient monitor and the remote display/control device, or a unidirectional RF transmission from the monitor to remote display/control device only. Typically, analog signal data is transmitted, although digital data can also be encoded and transmitted. The remote display/control device generally supports a number of patient monitors with transmitters, communicating with receivers at the remote display/control device. The patient monitors themselves usually can only monitor one parameter (e.g., ECG), although some systems permit the combination of multiple monitoring devices, sometimes with multiple transmitters per patient. The use of unidirectional analog RF technology limits the patient sensor monitors to performing pre-programmed tasks, with the only control being manual operation of the patient monitor itself. The analog signal quality received at the remote display/control unit tends to be dependent upon the distance from the transmitter to the antenna (e); objects (building components, movable objects, etc.) in between the transmitter and receiver may compromise performance. Furthermore, transmission technologies such as UHF, which employ a particular base frequency for data transmission, face serious problems due to interference from other transmission sources which happen to be transmitting at or near the same frequency.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved medical monitoring system including a patient monitor and a central monitoring system using bidirectional data transmission.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel medical monitoring system that enables dynamic control of remote monitoring simultaneously with medical parameter and/or waveform data acquisition.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an improved medical monitoring system which can receive and control a plurality of medical parameters and/or waveforms being monitored at remote locations.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a component which can be used therewith to automatically acquire and store data pertaining to various physiological parameters.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a telemetry system which enables automatic acceptance of patient data and immediate analysis thereof and/or comparison with previously-acquired data.
It is another object of the present invention to use RF communication and automatic registration of critical data, as well as in combination with forward error correcting, frequency hopping, spread spectrum technology, to provide significantly improved results which are surprising and unexpected in view of the prior art.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings described below wherein like components have like numerals throughout several views.